Re: AW: st: AW: RE: Problem importing data

[Jeph Herrin <junk@spandrel.net>]

From -help xtset-

r(balanced)   unbalanced, weakly balanced, or strongly balanced;
              a set of panels are strongly balanced if they all
	      have the same time values, otherwise balanced if
	      same number of time values, otherwise unbalanced.

Whether you should be concerned depends on what you expected.

hth,
Jeph





Ted Lundgren wrote:
> Okay, here it goes:
>
> "panel variable:  countrynum (strongly balanced)
>         time variable:  year, 1992 to 2005
>                 delta:  1 unit"
>
> In other words, I first used 'Encode country, gen(countrynum)'. Then I 
> got the above. What does it mean that 'Country' is now strongly 
> balanced? Should I be concerned about this?
>
>
>
>
> <-----Ursprungligt Meddelande----->
>  	 	*From: Martin Weiss [martin.weiss1@gmx.de]*
> Sent: 12/3/2009 5:13:50 PM
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: AW: st: AW: RE: Problem importing data 
>
> <>
> " I get a message that the ID variable is heavily weighted, or something
> like that."
>
>
> You have to be more specific here. Just paste the error in its entirety,
> otherwise it is hard to debug...
>
>
> HTH
> Martin
>
> Von: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] Im Auftrag von Ted Lundgren
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 12. März 2009 17:41
> An: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Cc: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Betreff: Re: st: AW: RE: Problem importing data
>
> Thank you very much for your help so far!
> Yes, Country is a string variable with the names of different countries. I
> was able to carry out the regression by using 'Encode country,
> gen(countrynum)' in the end, but now I was wondering: Have I done this
> correctly? 'Cause when I do this, I get a message that the ID variable is
> heavily weighted, or something like that.
>
> Another question when I'm at it...In order to lag a variable two periods
> (for example), I just use the command 'L2.[variable]', right? Or should I
> use a minus sign in some way? (For example, in Eviews you simply write:
> 'variable(-2)', and that's it.
>
>
> <-----Ursprungligt Meddelande----->
>  
>  
> From: Martin Weiss [martin.weiss1@gmx.de]
> Sent: 12/3/2009 2:48:37 PM
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: st: AW: RE: Problem importing data 
>
> <>
>
> BTW, there is nothing wrong with year being treated as "int". See -help
> data types-: The years conventionally found in today´s datasets are well
> within the range of the maximum and minimum for "int"...
>
>
>
>
> HTH
> Martin
>
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] Im Auftrag von Howard Lempel
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 12. März 2009 15:30
> An: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Betreff: st: RE: Problem importing data
>
> Hi there,
>
> You'll get a better answer if you give a bit more detail. Two things that
> would be particularly helpful: 1) What exactly does your data look like? Is
> "country" a string variable with the names of different countries? Or does
> it consist of numbers that are codes for countries? 2) Exactly what
> commands have you typed into Stata so far and exactly what error message 
> did
>
> you get?
>
> That being said, you may want to take a look at -help encode-, which 
> creates
>
> a new variable giving assigning a unique number to each value of a string
> variable. If your country variable already consists of numbers, -help
> destring- will convert it to a numeric variable. Some non-numeric
> characters may have found their way into your country variable, in which
> case, you'll need to eliminate those before -destring-ing.
>
> Once you convert country to a numeric variable, you should be able to
> -xtset- your data, which tells Stata that your data is a panel and 
> specifies
>
> which variables contain your cross-sectional and time units.
>
> Lastly, you might want to try importing your data using the Stata command
> -xmluse- or saving your data as a CSV and using -insheet-.
>
> Hope this helps.
> Howie
>  
> ________________________________________
> From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Ted Lundgren
> Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 10:13 AM
> To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
> Subject: st: Problem importing data
>
> Hi all,
>
> I am new to Stata (have been using Eviews earlier), and despite this
> excellent forum I'm still having trouble getting my panel data right. I 
> have
>
> a "normal" panel so to speak, with "Country" in the first column, "Year" in
> the second, and then the variables. When I try to get the data into Stata
> from Excel by either Stattransfer or Copy/Paste, "Country" is all the time
> being treated as a string variable, no matter what I do. Therefore, the
> panel can't be estimated, i.e. I am getting an error message. "Year" is 
> also
>
> being treated as 'Int'. What am I  doing wrong?
>
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